Who actually won the Cold War?

Most historians agree that the United States and its Western allies won the Cold War, with the Soviet Union losing and collapsing in 1991. The Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the collapse of communist governments across Eastern Europe, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself on December 25, 1991, when the hammer and sickle flag was lowered over the Kremlin and replaced by the Russian flag. The US won because its economic system of capitalism proved more productive and innovative than Soviet central planning, allowing it to outspend the USSR on military technology including the Strategic Defense Initiative, and because its political system offered more freedom and prosperity, making Western culture more attractive globally. Key factors included the Soviet economy stagnating under the weight of military spending and inefficiency, the failure of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev like glasnost and perestroika that unintentionally unleashed demands for freedom, and pressure from US President Reagan's military buildup and Pope John Paul II's support for Polish solidarity. However, some argue there were no true winners because both sides spent trillions, tens of millions died in proxy wars, and the US also faced social costs. China, which remained communist but adopted market reforms, could also be seen as a long-term winner. But in conventional terms, the US-led Western Bloc achieved its goal of containment and saw its adversary collapse without direct superpower war.